When God Interrupts False Religion. (1 Kings 13: 1-34)

The Bible Project Daily Podcast is a daily, in-depth, encouraging, and uplifting study through the entire Bible,  chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Today's Episode: When God Interrupts False Religion. (1 Kings 13: 1-34)

Today, we step into one of the strangest, most dramatic, and most sobering chapters in the entire book of 1 Kings. And if you’ve been following the story with us, you know exactly why this chapter matters.

 Rehoboam has made foolish decisions.  Jeroboam has made even worse ones. The kingdom is divided, the people are confused, and false worship is spreading like wildfire. 

So, what does God do when His people drift into deception? Well, 1 Kings 13 gives us the answer, and it begins with a scene that feels almost cinematic. 

The Setting: A False Altar, a False Religion, and a False Sense of Security....

Transcript

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Today we step into one of the strangest, most dramatic, and most sobering chapters in the entire Book of One Kings. And if you've been following the story with me, you'll know exactly why this chapter matters. We have today a story about a prophet, a king, and a warning we can't ignore, because it tells us what happens when God interrupts false religion. Roabam has made some really foolish decisions. And the kingdom is now divided. The people are confused, and false worship is now spreading like wildfire. So now the question becomes: what does God do when people, a people, drift into deception? Well, One Kings gives us the answer, and it begins with a scene that feels almost cinematic. A scene and a warning we dare not ignore. That's the topic. That's what we're going to consider on today's episode of the Bible Project Daily Podcast. Remind ourselves where we are. Jerobam has built his own religion in this new split-off Northern Kingdom. He's created two golden calves and established two unauthorized altars as illicit places of worship. He's appointed illegitimate priests and established unofficial feast days. So this sort of unauthorized false worship is now taking place. He's replaced God's commands with his own ideas, and he's replaced God's priests with his own appointments, and he's even replaced God's place with his own locations. And now, at the opening of 1 Kings 13, Jeroboam is standing in front of his brand new altar, about to offer sacrifice to one of his shiny new idols that he's just had created. He thinks he's solved a political problem in doing this, and he thinks he has secured his kingdom. He kind of thinks he's outsmarted God, but God is about to interrupt. The opening of this chapter then introduces for us a new character. Let's hear what it says. By the word of the Lord, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jerobam was standing by the altar about to make an offering. By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar, altar, altar, this is what the Lord says. A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who made offerings here, and human bones will be burned anew. That same day the man of God gave a sign. This is the sign the Lord has declared. The altar will split apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out. Now, interestingly, the man himself is unnamed. We don't know his background, we don't know his family, we don't really even know what his credentials are. All we know is this he came, as we're told, by the word of the Lord, and that should be enough for it. While Jeroboam here is offering sacrifices or about to, this prophet steps forward and he cries out and he speaks out against the altar. Now this is a cry out. It's not a private conversation, it's not a gentle whisper in Rehuabam's ear. This is a public confrontation at the very center, the launching off even of Jeroboam's false religious system. And God is not silent, so God is not silent to what's going on here. God is not remaining passive, he's not indifferent. When people drift, he's going to show up and he's going to speak. And the message is this judgment is coming. This man of God prophesies that a future king, names him Josiah, will rise up from the line of David and destroy this altar, burn the bones of the false priests, it says, and purge the land of this idolatry. Now this is remarkable for two reasons, for this is a prophecy. It names a king who will not actually be born for nearly three hundred years and names him correctly. And it declares that Jeroboam's entire religious system will collapse. And of course, that will happen because God is not impressed with these golden calves, and he's also not intimidated by shows of political power, and God will never be misled or satisfied by this sort of counterfeit worship. God will speak truth into deception, light into darkness, and he will always speak judgment into rebellion. Now to prove the messages from God, the prophet announces a sign. He says the altar will be split apart and the ashes on it shall be poured out. And then immediately, right in front of Jeroboam, the altar does indeed crack open, and those ashes spill out. So God confirms his word, he exposes the lie, and he interrupts this deception right at the beginning. Jerobam's religion looked strong and established, but just one word from the Lord and it shatters it. Continuing. When King Jerobim heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, seize him. But the hand he stretched out towards the man shrivelled up so that he could not pull it back. Also the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out, according to the sign given by the man of God, by the word of the Lord. So instead of repenting immediately, Jerobim tries to stretch out his hands and shout, seize him, and instantly his hand withers. This king who tries to seize this prophet cannot now even move his own body, his own arm. The king who is trying to control and establish worship cannot now even control his own physical body. The king who is trying to silence God is now effectively silenced by God. And then very suddenly this guy, Jerobon, the man who's just rejected God, starts immediately begging for mercy, God's mercy. Verses six and seven say, Then the king said to the man of God, Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand will be restored. So the man of God did intercede with the Lord, and the king's hand was restored, and became as it was before. So there we go, he pleads with the guy, pray for me. Now but notice the phrase he says, Pray to your God. So this is telling us, signalling that Jerobam's heart is still far from the Lord. But the prophet does indeed pray, and God heals Jerobam's hand. Think of it. This is God giving Jerobam another chance, but will Jerobam take it or will he waste us? Now you need to understand that this chapter is not just about Jerobam, it's also about the prophet, and the prophet himself will face a test, a test of obedience. That's coming in a moment. So this chapter is ultimately about the wider danger of anyone ignoring God's word. So it's a warning here to a king, to a prophet, but it's also meant to be a warning to us. That's the tragedy of Jerobim here. He at this point for a moment recognises the truth, but he still won't bow down to it. So what would you do if you were asked in this situation to pray for him? Would you pray for him? Or would you be more inclined to say, Well, you've made your bed, friend, now you can lie in it? Well, thankfully, helpfully, Jesus gives us some help because he tells us what to do in situations like this, and in fact, he commands us to pray for our enemies. Jesus specifically says that in Matthew chapter 5, when he tells us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use you. Now, you may have been spitefully used in life, mistreated, misunderstood, wounded by someone, well, even someone who should have known better. Well, Jesus says, Bless such people, do good for them and pray for them. Why? Because that's what God does. God sends rain on the just and the unjust. He shows kindness to the grateful and the ungrateful, and he even forgave those who crucifies him. So the prophet then, as we see, he prays for this guy, this guy who has just tried to harm him. So far, I think this prophet is a model of godly obedience. But what follows next, Jerobam's invitation to this man, and listen watch closely, friends, because it's actually a trap in disguise. Verses seven to ten tell us the king said to the man of God, Come home with me for a meal and I will give you a gift. But the man of God answered the king, Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. For I was commanded by the word of the Lord, you must not eat bread or drink water, or return by the way you came. So he took another road and did not return by the way he came to Bethel. So this is not a genuine offer of hospitality here. This is an attempt to get this guy, this man of God, to compromise. You see, if the prophet goes home with Jerobam, it will look like he has approved of Jerobam's false religion. And that of course would confuse the people, and it would undermine the very message God has just given and he's just delivered. So this is a trap dressed up as kindness, and the Prophet recognises it as such, and his response is a clear and courageous no. God has given him a clear command, don't eat there, don't drink there, and return home the a different route than the way you came. And the Prophet is doing exactly what God had said. He's obeying the Lord precisely, and he's refusing to compromise at this point. He's setting his boundaries and he's sticking to them. You know, there is great spiritual discipline in saying no sometimes. Interestingly, if you think about it, eight of the Ten Commandments are negative. Think about it, you shall have no other gods, you shall not make idols, you shall not take the Lord's name in vain, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, and you shall not covet. Why so many no's? Well, I would say because spiritual maturity always requires us to set boundaries and say no. Set boundaries not to do things that God says we shouldn't go, not to go there, not to touch that, not to participate in that, and not to compromise in that way. So sometimes the most spiritual thing that you can say in a situation is a simple no. Now Paul, when teaching on this in the New Testament, adds another layer for us, a deeper layer. He says, Whatever is not of faith is sin. So if anything violates your conscience, even, don't do it. Say no. Nehemiah also understood this, I think. When he was rebuilding the wall, his enemies mocked him, threatened him, and you may remember, or you will find out if you're staying with us when we reach that book, they will try to lure him into a meeting on a place called the plain of Ono. And Nehemiah said, I'm doing a great work here, and I cannot come down and meet with you. They ask him four times and he will say no four times. And that is an explicit example of wisdom. That's maturity, that's obedience, that's saying no, and that's exactly what this prophet is doing in one Kings chapter thirteen. So far this guy, this so-called man of God, pretty much looks like the hairy of this chapter. But of course the chapter and the story isn't over yet, because the greatest test of his obedience is still ahead. But it won't come from this wicked king. It will come from someone who looks religious, spiritual, someone who sounds religious, someone who actually claims to speak for God. And therein, my friend, a danger lies. You see, so far the man of God, this guy from Judah, has been the hero of the story. He's obeyed, he's done what he was asked to do, he confronted Jerobam, and he even prayed for him when asked to do so. But he refused to compromise. He set boundaries and he said no when he needed to. But now the story, almost through a side door, introduces a second character, and this one will change everything. Enter the old prophet of Bethel. Picking up in verse eleven. Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked him, Which way did he go? And the sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. So he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me, and when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it and rode after the man of God. And he found him sitting under an oak tree, and he asked, Are you the man who came from Judah? I am, he replied. So the prophet said to him, Come home with me and eat. The man of God said, I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord you must not eat bread or drink water there, or return by the way you came. The old prophet answered, I too am a prophet, as you are, and an angel said to me by the word of the Lord, Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water with you. But he was lying to him. So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house. Now immediately something should feel a little off here. What is a prophet of the Lord doing in Bethel anyway? Bethel is the centre of Jerobam's false religion. Why is he living in that very place, the place where this golden calf stands and sacrifices are being offered? Why is he not in Jerusalem where we know true worship belongs? Well the text doesn't tell us, but I believe the location alone is meant to raise some questions in our mind. Now his sons came home and told this man everything God did, the prophecy about the altar splitting, the king's hand withering, the healing, but the refusal to compromise, and the old prophet wants to know one thing which way does this all go? Now remember God told the man of God not to return by the same route, but the old prophet saw the direction that he took, and he saddles his donkey and he goes off after him in the direction he saw him leave. And he eventually finds our man of God sitting under an oak, and then he comes up to him and offers this invitation. Come home with me and eat bread. So this is the exact same temptation that Jerobam offered and the m and the man of God gives the same answer. He repeats God's commands made of him perfectly. So far so good. But then the story takes a bit of a twist and a turn. Lies are spoken. This guy says, An angel spoke to me. This so called prophet says, I too am a prophet, my friend, and he by saying, An angel spoke to me by way of the Lord, he's manipulating him, and then he tells them the exact opposite of what God had previously said to our guy. And the text adds for us in brackets, just so we're sure what's going on here, he says this man was lying to him, and this is the moment that everything changes, and this is a moment that should be a warning for every believer that not every religious voice we hear is really one that speaks for God. This is one of the most sobering truths in Scripture. Do you know the fact that you can hear lies being spoken every week in church buildings? The devil doesn't just hang out in bars and nightclubs. The devil likes to show up in church sometimes. Paul actually warns us that Satan sometimes disguises himself as an angel of light. False teachers will quote the Bible to you, false prophets will sound spiritual, and false religions will they look religious. But Paul says in one Galatians, even if an angel from heaven preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. You see, truth is not determined by who says it or how they appear. It doesn't matter how sincere they sound or how spiritual they appear, or whether they even claim to have received their message in a vision, a dream, or some sort of angelic visitation. Truth is always determined and tested by the plumb line of the Word of God. Paul says as much in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, where he tells us to test everything and only hold fast to what is good. That includes sermons you hear, that includes preachers you hear, and of course, my friend, that includes me. Don't believe anything any preacher says, including this one, unless they can show you the truth in context from the Word of God. Now sadly, this time our guy fell for the sly, and he goes back to the house and he eats bread with him. What? The man who obeyed God, the man who refused the king, the man who prayed for his enemy, the man who said no when it was right to say no and not compromised, and was obedient when it was right to do that, now he disobeys God because a religious man has manipulated and lied to him, and he does the very one thing God told him not to do, and the consequences whether going to be immediate. Verse 20. While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back, and he cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, This is what the Lord said. You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the very place where you were told not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors. Now the same self-declared old prophet who lied and manipulated now speaks the truth, and he announces the judgment. You will die and you will not be honored, and you will not even be buried with your family. So there are consequences for disobedience, even for people who are declared to be men of God, even prophets. It continues, When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him, and as he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both donkey and lion standing beside it. Some people who passed by saw the body lying there with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where that old prophet lived. So our man of God leaves, and on the road a lion pretty much immediately meets him and kills him. Now the scene is slightly bizarre, isn't it? The lion does not eat the body, and it seems that the lion doesn't even attack the donkey. It doesn't the donkey doesn't appear to run away. Both animals are now simply standing beside the corpse. Now this in itself appears supernatural to people. Passers by see it, and they come back and they spread the news in the city. The story continues. The prophet said to his son, Saddle the donkey for me, and they did so, and then he went out and found the body lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body more nor mauled the donkey. So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. Then he laid the body in his tomb, and they mourned over him, and he said, Alas, my brother, after burying him he said to his sons, When I die, bury me in the grave where this man of God is buried, lay my bones beside his bones. For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines and the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true. So this old prophet, having heard about all of this, he retrieves the body, mourns over it, and actually buries him in his own tomb. So even this lying prophet recognizes the truth of God's word and the truth of what the original prophecy he gave back in the opening verses says will happen. Now this story is rather unsettling. It has a strange sort of twist to it, it's tragic, but the message is unmistakable. Obey the word of the Lord and obey it always and completely, not partially, not selectively, not when it's convenient, not when it's easy, and not when others agree. Now this man of God in this story, he started well. He pretty much obeyed 90% of what God said. But the ten percent he ignored cost him his life. He'd been manipulated by spiritually sounding words to do something he very specifically had been told not to. And that fact cost him his life. Now, please note this chapter is not meant to teach us anything about salvation. It has nothing to do with salvation. It is about obedience. It's about expressing discernment and it's about testing every voice, even religious ones, and doing that by the word of God. Now this is a strange chapter, but at the end the story circles all the way back to the man who started it all. It ends up and finishes up back with Jerobim, because this chapter is ultimately trying to tell us something about him. The closing verses say, even after this, Jerobam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to be a priest, he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction off the face of the earth. So it wraps it all up by saying, even after all these strange, wonderful, supernatural events, Jerobam did not turn from his evil ways. Even after the altar split, after his withered hand, after that withered hand was healed by the power of God, and after a prophet dies because of disobedience, Jerobam himself still refuses to repent. He keeps right on building his false religion, we see at the end. He keeps right on appointing priests who are not Levites, and he keeps right on leading this nation further and further into idolatry. Whoever wanted to be a priest, he consecrated. No establishing if they had a calling, no qualifications were needed, no need even perhaps to be obedient or godly, no need to show any reverence at all. Just do you want to be a priest? Then you're in. This is spiritual chaos here, and Jerobam is the one who at heart is responsible for it. And it's not going to affect Jesus, it'll affect his family, his descendants, and indeed this whole nation. His sin will become a generational pattern. His disobedience will become the national disaster, and his false religion will become the root cause of the entire fall of Israel to Assyria. Jerobam will be the one responsible for a system that will eventually result in them being taken by the Assyrians into captivity. And that sin of his will way outlive him. His choices will shape Israel's history and his disobedience. Well, you might say it effectively destroys this nation. You see, the big picture message here is that sin affects much more than just you, friends. This is one of the most neglected truths, I think, in Scripture, and also how people approach it, the fact that our sin affects other people. We tend to, in our modern individualistic societies, tend are inclined to think of sin only in personal terms. How will this affect me? Or what will this cost me? What might I lose? But Scripture shows us here that Jerobim's sin affected not just his family but the whole kingdom. And Jerobim's sin will affect future generations and indeed the future of the entire nation for hundreds and hundreds of years. Sin, my friend, is never private. It's never personal, it's never contained. Sin always spills out of us and over into and affecting others around us. A very simple, straightforward, modern example might be like when a young, reckless driver driving dangerously on a motorway crashes. His injuries, well that's personal. His damaged car? That's personal as well. Personal consequences as well. But what about the traffic jams, the delays, the wasted times of the first responders, the frustration of hundreds, maybe thousands of people, the ripple effect of that one foolish guy's behavior spreads. And what about if he hits or injures or even kills another innocent driver? The suffering, his personal sin, then becomes painfully real for other people. One person's sinful mistake can then be multiplied across families, even across a whole city or region. That's what's going on with Jeroboam here. That's Jerobim in the story. That is the man of God in the story, and that is also that old manipulative prophet in that story, but more importantly, that is also us in this story. The lesson today is to sometimes say no, but not just to say it to protect yourself, but to say it for the sake of others. The chapter calls us to obey God, set boundaries, set boundaries and say no to disobedience, to say no to compromise and to say no to anything that violates God's words, even for your conscience' sake. Because, my friend, your choices do not just affect you. Your choices will affect your family, your community, maybe your church, your friendships. It will also make your personal testimony illegitimate, it'll affect your future, and that's the big message here today. It's telling us to do what God says, friend, obey the Lord, but also to say no and to say no to sin. And to do that not just for your sake, but for the sake of those who love you and for the sake of those that you love. I hope we all can really take this on board today. Thanks for being with me. A warning about listening to wrong voices sometimes, a warning about the potential for what partial obedience can do, and a warning about the ripple effects of sin. It's never just a personal thing. But the story of kings is far from over, because over the next few chapters we will meet another king, a guy called Ahab and another prophet, a prophet called Elijah, and another confrontation will take place, this time on Mount Carmel. Now, if today's chapter shows us the danger of false religion, the following chapters will show us the triumph of the true God over false religion. Fire will literally come down from heaven, and a showdown will occur with this huge group called the Prophets of Baal, and a nation is forced to choose whom they will serve. So join me tomorrow, next time, as we step into one of the most dramatic chapters in all of Scriptures, where God reveals Himself in power, and individuals stand alone against a nation, a nation that has forgotten the Lord. You won't want to miss it. Thanks for being with me, and I'll see you back here again very soon on the Bible Project Daily Podcast. Bye bye, for now.